The One Step That Instantly Makes Home Brewed Coffee Taste Better

Coffee is something many of us need to kickstart the day, and if you're one of those people, there's no doubt you have a go-to coffee order. (You might even have a favorite barista.) But, with coffee prices already high and likely to keep increasing, many of us are now brewing more coffee at home. It is, after all, a more budget-friendly option. And while you might be tempted to buy pre-ground coffee to save yourself some time, if you want a more flavorful cup of joe you should always buy whole beans and grind them at home.

When left whole, coffee beans maintain their flavors and aromas to a much greater extent than when they are ground. To put it another way, coffee brewed from beans that were ground weeks ago will taste and smell noticeably duller than coffee brewed from beans that were ground a few minutes ago. For this reason, it's always a good idea to grind your beans just before you brew your coffee.

Pre-ground coffee, even if air sealed, is exposed to a lot of moisture — both at the supermarket and after you bring it home. Exposure to moisture causes the coffee to lose its natural oils. As these are responsible for the coffee's flavor, this process negatively impacts the taste of your beverage. While whole beans will lose some oils due to moisture, they lose a lot less than ground coffee for the simple reason that ground coffee has a much larger surface area. In other words, keeping your beans whole and freshly grinding them just before brewing keeps all of those oils concentrated, and the resulting beverage will have a much richer taste and aroma.

Exposure to air plays a similar role, oxidizing the coffee and causing it to lose its aroma. Again, because of its greater surface area, ground coffee oxidizes much more quickly which is why freshly ground coffee has a significantly stronger smell than pre-ground coffee. What's more, whole beans don't absorb other aromas as readily as ground coffee does. (Ground coffee's ability to absorb aromas is so great that it can be used to banish kitchen odors.) This can be a real issue when storing ground coffee in the kitchen — that is, unless you like your coffee to smell of food. You can try to mitigate the risk by always keeping your ground coffee away from any strong odors, preferably by storing it in an airtight container. Then again, if you grind your beans just before you brew, you won't have to worry about it absorbing any other smells.